Edited by Catherine Brölmann and Yannick Radi

The global landscape has changed profoundly over the past decades. As a result, the account of the making of international law based on the traditional theory of sources is increasingly challenged. This Handbook offers a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of international law‐making today. It takes stock at both the conceptual and the empirical level of the instruments, processes, and actors involved in the making of international law. The book contains essays by leading scholars on key aspects of international law-making and on law-making in the main issue areas, with an interest in classic processes as well as new developments and shades of normativity.

Handbook Chapter

Abstract

While over the past years lawmaking by international organizations has received abundant attention, institutional lawmaking has moved beyond the traditional methods and actors and is increasingly studied in a broader sense, including new actors and new regulatory activities. This chapter approaches institutional lawmaking with these developments in mind. It assesses the lawmaking functions of traditional international organizations and will also further clarify the notion of institutional lawmaking itself. It focuses on possible lawmaking functions of other international bodies and in doing so will point to the wide variety of bodies and networks active in lawmaking processes. The main argument is that different international norms originating in distinct formal and informal bodies and networks are interconnected and together form a global normative web. Implicitly, this calls for a broader understanding of institutional lawmaking to allow us to take full account of a rich institutional normative output but also of a complex relation between different norms.

You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.

Elgaronline requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals. Please login through your library system or with your personal username and password on the homepage.